Some local BP stations see gas sales drop in response to gulf oil spill

Customer anger about gulf oil spill is misplaced, they say

Roughly 1,000 miles separate the Gulf of Mexico and Montgomery County, but a massive oil spill in the gulf is having a financial impact on Majid Adam's BP station in Montgomery Village.

"When people go running scared from BP, they punish me, the owner," he said.

In June, Adam said, his sales dropped by half. He was selling about 2,000 gallons per day before the spill, but is down to about 1,000 gallons per day.

But not all station owners have been the target of customer anger.

The Potomac BP station at 10140 River Road has seen no decline in gas sales, manager Brian Hannam said.

"We hope that most people would understand that we're not BP. We feel bad about [the oil spill] like everyone else," he said. "We're just individuals trying to make a living."

For Adam, however, former customers make their opinions known when they fill up at a Shell station next door.

"Some people were very impolite and aggressive," he said. "People getting gas from Shell were shouting bad words and insults."

Misplaced boycotts and anger about the estimated 2 million barrels of oil that have gushed into the gulf since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig have affected BP stations across the county, and across the country.

Sales at BP stations in all parts of the country have dropped, said John Townsend, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, as customers angry about the environmental disaster look for ways to take out their frustration.

That is unfair, he said. A state law established in the 1970s prohibits BP from owning any of its gas stations in Maryland. All are independently owned franchises.

On the rebound?

John Phelps, president of Carroll Independent Fuels, which provides gas to 105 BP stations in the Baltimore Washington area and 150 other branded stations, said demand at his BP delivery spots had dropped slightly, but is on the rise.

"It has leveled off, the outrage," he said. "We noticed it seemed to be demographically based."

Some stations in suburban areas saw sales drop to 15 percent of normal, Phelps said, while stations in metropolitan areas saw almost no change.

The low point came about two weeks ago, he said, when sales were down an average of 6 or 7 percent and stations were being vandalized.

Average sales have started to rebound slightly.

Hannam said his station is selling about 4,000 gallons a day, which is on par with normal sales.

"I think people realize at this level we have no control over stuff like that," he said. "[Customers] ask us about it. Ask how us business is. We haven't seen any reduction of business at all."

Mitch and Bill's Texaco gas station across the street, 10127 River Road, has seen an increase in gas sales since the oil spill began.

Night manager Kevin Ridge said station is selling more than 5,000 gallons per day, when it usually sells between 4,000 and 5,000.

BP to the rescue

Officials at BP have promised to pay between $50 million and $70 million to station owners to offset the decrease in sales, but that money is not expected to arrive until August, and it will not go to every station.

BP will make payments to oil distributors, like Phelps, who will then dole out the money to stations that have suffered the most.

Phelps said he has been monitoring sales closely so he will know who to pay, but he expects it to be a small percentage of his 105 stations.

"The majority of that will be for the Gulf Coast stations," he said. "They have felt the impacts the most."